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Friends
Nov. 11th, 2009
09:27 am - Remembering and Thankful
For all you who serve our country, either as a soldier, or the family of a soldier, thank you. You are valued, you are incredible, and we wouldn't be the nation we are, enjoying the freedoms we enjoy without you.
I wrote a piece for Veteran's Day a few years back - it can be found here if you'd like to re-read. I grew up in a military family, and my brothers served as well. I know what it's like to live that life, and it requires a level of dedication that most don't have, when it all comes down to it.
Thank you again, for all you do, every single day.
12:18 am - Hot Chili from a newbie
Hello, I noticed this community on one of my friend's journals and decided that it must be a wonderful place. I've been watching for a few days and snagging recipes, and seeing as I made my chili up tonight for the next few days' dinner I figure I'd share it with you.
2 lbs of lean ground beef browned and drained
1 large onion or two small coursely chopped or quartered and split
2 bell peppers (I used red and green, but yellow or orange are nice too) coarsely chopped.
1 jalapeno sliced, seeds in (because we like it hot)
If you like it really hot, add one hot banana (cubanelle) pepper too.
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 cans of tomato sauce
1 can of red kidney beans
1 bottle of Heinz Chili sauce
1/2 pound of white mushrooms sliced
1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Dried chili peppers to taste
2 tbsp of chili powder
1 tsp of onion powder
1 tsp of celery salt
Pepper to taste
Sometimes I throw in a can of kernel corn as well if there is one in the cupboard.
On medium or low all day (depending on what your "day" length is) and it's perfect, serve with texas toast, garlic bread, or dinner rolls. It's also nice over rice or nachos. This recipe has evolved in my house over the years because i was tired of chili that tasted like spaghetti sauce with kidney beans and chili powder. The flavour is hot and tangy, and it has a chunky consistency. In the crock pot the flavours soak through everything, and it's yummy. Enjoy!
03:00 pm - John Gebhardt
Photograph shows a U.S. airman comforting an injured Iraqi child.Nov. 10th, 2009
11:22 pm - bean soup UPDATE
wanted to have some soup tomorrow... so:
i bag of 16 bean mix from the grocery store
1 chopped onion
2 potatoes chopped
1 portabella mushroom, sliced
3 (more like 2) carrots
4 bouilion cubes (chicken)
wash beans
throw it all in a pot
we will see how it urns out tomorrow, but i PLAN to serve it with some steamed spinach and some noodles or something.....
yes, its lacking in spices right now.
i prefer my soups BLAND so i can season them up to go with different stuff ....
after all, if i am going to serve it over rice, with cheese? different seasoning than by itself in a bowl
however i am almost certain to toss some small amount of seasoning in before morning.
EDiT: yes, most people would add garlic, sadly i am allergic to it.
Vegan? this could easily be vegan with more vegetables and without the chicken bouillion
UPDATE: as of his morning its thick, dark brown, and smells great. i actually think i will have some plain in a bowl for breakfast (peas porridge hot...) and possibly an added bunch of greens.
my sniff and nibble test says that for plain soup, no cheese or other stuff, i want to add a pepper mix (probably Mrs Dash) and a bit of paprika.
This is going to be removed from the crock pot and put in containers in the fridge as a "quick food base" for the next few days.... it will mostly be used as a side dish, or an ingredient, but its nice to know i have some on hand to heat up fast as plain soup.
03:00 pm - Upper Case
Has a federal judge ordered Barack Obama to prove his eligibility for the presidency in court on 26 January 2010?Nov. 9th, 2009
06:14 pm - Santa Fe Chicken
I made this for dinner tonight, along with some white rice and sour cream. It turned out wonderfully, so I figured I would share. I'll definitely be making it again!
Crock Pot Santa Fe Chicken
Courtesy Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Serves 8 / Points: 4.25 ww points
* 24 oz (1 1/2) lbs chicken breast
* 14.4 oz can diced tomatoes with mild green chile peppers
* 15 oz can black beans
* 8 oz frozen corn (I used canned, it worked just as well)
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 14.4 oz can fat free chicken broth
* 3 scallions, chopped
* 1 tsp garlic powder (I added extra before serving)
* 1 tsp onion powder (I added extra before serving)
* 1 tsp cumin
* 1 tsp cayenne pepper (to taste)
* salt to taste
Combine chicken broth, beans, corn, tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin, cayenne pepper and salt in the crock pot. Season chicken breast with salt and lay on top. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Half hour before serving, remove chicken and shred. Return chicken to slow cooker and stir in. Adjust salt and seasoning. Serve over rice (extra pts).
I added some shredded sharp cheddar to each serving, along with a blob of sour cream. Yum! If you're not a rice fan, this would also go well with warmed tortillas, or on top of a baked potato. Taste-wise, it's a lot like chicken tortilla soup, but more hearty. Enjoy!
12:34 pm - Pain Perdu
Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for a really custardy pain perdu? I had a craving for it last night & made some baked french toast, but it didn't come out right. The leftovers are rock hard & I have them soaking in milk.
I usually think of regular french toast as something really yummy when it's hot, but that I choke on when it starts to cool & get tough. Is thicker bread the secret? I thought it might come out better if I did it in the crockpot.
09:45 am - LJ Idol: Make with the vote
Don't make me send Guido over with the boys to convince you...
Vote here. I'm in tribe PhotoDiva2
If you need a refresher, here's the entry.
Thank you all for bothering to read my blatherings. It means a lot. You have no idea.
:)
EDIT TO ADD: Doh! Apparently, this week's voting is Members only - sorry. I guess your kneecaps are safe this week.
02:15 am - Lots of Rice?
I love this community -- you've given me some seriously great advice. So now that my Mother has a question I can't answer, I'm passing it on to you: can we do a big batch of rice in a crock pot? We're going to be doing chinese food for about nine people, so we figure we need 9-10 cups of cooked rice. We're really not up for buying a rice cooker (since it would be used only about once every two years, and there is no more space in the cupboards for rarely used appliances), but we've got options when it comes to crocks (2, 4, or 6 qts); we'd even be happy enough to make it on the stove and store it in the crock to keep warm, if that's the only way to do this. I know it's possible to do smaller quantities of rice this way, but I haven't seen anyone post about doing so much, and I'm a little worried about how long before dinner we'll need to put it in.
( The rest of the proposed menu is under here for the curious... )
01:01 pm - Boneless Pork Loin Center Cut Roast in my freezer... Recipe??
Looking for a crock pot recipe for the above item in my freezer. Although I think something with sweet potatoes or apples or fruit glazes would be good... my husband is not in the mood for a recipe with any sweet/sugary stuff. So please share any non-sweet recipe you have!
03:00 pm - The Tipping Point
Did Oprah Winfrey tell her audience that restaurant patrons need not tip their servers more than 10 percent?Nov. 8th, 2009
06:59 pm - Oh Al Gore, thanks for inventing the internets
So I can watch this over and over again:
http://www.southparkstudios.com/episode
I haven't watched South Park regularly in years and years. This is THE funniest episode I've ever seen. It's SO sick and wrong.
For those of you who have followed it, when did they stop killing Kenny in every episode? Why does Cartman sound so different?
I totally want Billy Mays! NO! and Oh look, it's a planet. HEE-HEE-HEE! as my ring tone, but I don't know how to hook that up.
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amused06:22 pm - I'm not an addict
So, I've been watching SoapNET for hours to catch up on this week's General Hospital.
Michael whacked Claudia. WITH AN AX. That was Wednesday's episode and the rest of the week's shows have been RIVETING. I have never said that about GH before. NEVER.
And OH SH!T, this is when Jonathan Jackson shows back up as LUCKY?!?!?! OMG! Show of the year! Give them the Daytime Emmy for Best Show now.
Yeah, I know that GH is often more General Mafia than General Hospital these days (okay, this last DECADE). But these episodes? The writing, the editing(THE EDITING!), the directing, the acting? Everything daytime should be (with the exception of love in the afternoon, which will hopefully return in this week's shows).
I love November sweeps. *SIGH*
ETA: JJ needs to grow a full beard, because he still looks 12 to me. He looks crazy as Lucky interrogating Jason. Jason could snap his neck like a chicken.
pleased02:37 pm - Our boys mentioned on "Californication"
I love this show, and yes, our boys were mentioned on the episode with RICK SPRINGFIELD!!
Check out around 3:50 on...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FY6Si1a
-J
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amused12:24 am - Crock pot chicken experiment
I made chicken in the crock for dinner tonight - my son's request for his birthday dinner. I did my usual thing - put some cut up carrots and onions in the crock and set a whole chicken on top. But I thought it seemed a bit boring - same old, same old, you know. So I cut up an apple, stuffed half of it inside the chicken (it was a BIG apple) and put the rest around it. (This turned out to be a VERY good idea because when stuffing the apple into the chicken, I discovered I'd forgotten to take out the giblet package... OOPS!)
Then I rubbed the chicken with some lemon juice and a bit of olive oil, and then I sprinkled paprika liberally over the whole thing. I added a cup or so of water and a chicken stock cube (since I'm temporarily out of homemade) and cooked on low for about 8 hours or so.
I served it with a salad, noodles, and crusty french bread. Somehow the apple and lemon juice really perked up the chicken. And the paprika gave the skin a nice reddish brown color and some extra flavor. My husband said the chicken tasted even nicer than usual, and my mom-in-law (who isn't really a huge chicken lover) even had seconds! In fact, there is very little in the way of leftovers (which is both good and bad - I was rather counting on having enough leftover chicken and noodles to make a casserole for dinner tomorrow, darn it!)
03:00 pm - Fantastic Music Machine
Video clip purportedly shows a music-playing "farm machine" built at the University of Iowa.Nov. 7th, 2009
01:20 pm - Italian Beef Sandwiches
Italian Beef (slightly adapted from a recipe found online)
Ingredients:
3 c water
1 t black pepper
1 t oregano
1 t dried basil
1 t onion salt (this is the only salt I used in this recipe)
1 t dried parsley
1 t garlic powder
1 bay leaf
1 (.7 oz) pkg dry Italian salad dressing mix
1 3-to-4# rump roast (I used a sirloin tip roast)
Italian sub rolls
Will make 6-8 servings.
Combine water, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, onion salt, parsley, garlic powder, bay leaf and salad dressing mix in a saucepan. Stir well and bring to a boil.
Place roast in crock pot, and pour mixture over roast.
Cover and cook on LOW for 12 hours (I went 13 hours). Remove bay leaf and shred meat. Turn off crock pot, recover and let stand for 1 hour. Serve Italian beef on Italian sub rolls and top with sauteed peppers if desired. Use the Au Jus as you wish: dip the sub, soak the sub, spoon some onto the sub, or eat the sandwich 'dry'.
Yum.
Not the most healthy of dishes, but I cooked mine overnight, refrigerated it in the morning, so when I got home from work, the fat had all hardened on the top and I was able to remove almost all of it. Plus I added no salt beyond the onion salt and what may have been in the Italian dressing mix, to help keep the sodium levels down.
It was pretty tasty. The Italian dressing mix gave it a kick other It. beef recipes I've tried didn't have.
09:13 am - pineapple jam followup
Okay.
I put
3 chunked pinapples
1 lemons (sliced with the skin)
1 epic fuckton of sugar (like 3 cups?)
on low at about 11 last night.
I check now, at about 8 am (9 hrs later) and it's definitely starting to liquefy. there are a lot of dessicated looking chunks floating on the surface, and underneath that is a thin, brown syrup of tartly sweet nectar. At this point I added:
a few shakes of ginger
1 1/2 cups sugar
and some chopped pineapple mint
It's now chilling for what I imagine will be about 7 hrs.
Questions for the comm:
1. Should I add pectin? I'm okay with it not being the jelliest of jams, but wasn't sure if pectin speed the process along.
2. How much longer will this take? There's definitely still a lot of mass in the crock -- my understanding is that jamming in the crock involved a LOT of reduction... is it done done when it looks less "full"?
3. Should I make a vent or something to let the steam escape? Maybe that's why it's still so liquidy.
03:00 pm - Free Meals for Veterans
Restaurant chains are offering free meals to U.S. military personnel in conjunction with Veterans Day.Nov. 6th, 2009
12:07 pm - Recipe modification suggestion
Last weekend I made crackcrock pot jambalaya. This is my 2nd or 3rd time making it, and each time has been a little different. The recipe calls for 1lb of boneless skinless chicken breast, 1lb of andouille sausage, and 1lb of cooked and peeled shrimp (added at the end, obviously). The first time I made it, I didn't like how the shrimp made the leftovers taste (I'm not a big fan of fish, but love shrimp, but the taste about ruined the leftovers for me). I'm also learning that I'm not a big fan of andouille sausage. SO, this time, when I made it, I used the chicken, smoked turkey sausage (similar to kielbasa), and sweet italian sausage. It turned out really good, but the chicken breast came out incredibly dry.
My thought, and I'm hoping to get some justification here, is that next time, I'll use chicken thighs because there's a bit more fat in it, and would dry out less. Am I right in this thinking?
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